Directed by long-time Clash acolyte and Punk chronicler Don Letts, the comprehensive 'Still Burning' is an excellent, does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin documentary affair, comparable with both The Clash's 'Westway To The World' and The Ramones' notable 'End Of The Century.'
Featuring extensive interview footage with SLF mainstays Jake Burns and Ali McMordie intercut with incendiary live footage from the band's March 2007 UK/ Irish 30th anniversary tour, the group's story is relayed candidly and in detail, documenting the horrors and shocking tedium of life in Belfast in the early to mid 1970s as the fledgling band cut their teeth as covers band Highway Star before the coming of Punk through to their subsequent success with the legendary 'Inflammable Material' debut album, the run-ins with less-than-honest labels, initial split and reformation in 1987.
And, even to non-devotees there's plenty to engage here. As always, Burns is a fantastic raconteur and great human being in general, McMordie is deliberate and articulate and there's also extensive interview time given over to both original drummer Brian Faloon (who quit on the eve of the band's first flush of success) and - most intriguingly - original manager Gordon Ogilvie, the man who some still believe to be the manipulative, Malcolm McLaren-style svengali behind the band. On the contrary, Ogilvie comes across as a fiercely intelligent character who clearly had the band's best interests at heart and played a vital role (both lyrically and guidance-wise) in pushing SLF onward to a number of key successes.
Sensibly, the documentary takes the story chronologically and while this reviewer was already familiar with parts of the band's story (the hilarious packaging of the 'Suspect Device' demo as an, erm, suspect device which radio stations lobbed into buckets of sand while fearing the worst, the John Peel patronage etc), there's also lesser known anecdotal material such as Jake's hilarious description of the band's reformation in 1987 and his reaction to a string of sold-out gigs. I won't spoil it for you.
Unsurprisingly, the thing that seem to unite everyone surrounding the band is their unshaking belief in SLF'S total positivity (Burns amusingly refers to them as "the band that refuses to die" while biographer Alan Parker openly admits he'd "take a bullet" for anyone in the band) and indeed some of the best interview footage comes courtesy of the additional material where luminaries such as Buzzcocks' Steve Diggle, England footballer Stuart Pearce and Mike Peters of The Alarm profess their long-running love for the band. Peters (an all-round good bloke anyway) is especially touching and his relating of the party surrounding the break-up of SLF at the end of 1982 is truly illuminating, as is the extended Gordon Ogilvie interview when he speaks of the day to day realities of trying to come to terms with living through the Troubles in Belfast in the late 1970s.
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Perhaps inevitably, though, it's the footage from the band's anniversary show from Belfast's Ulster Hall you'll want to return to again and again. Having caught them play an absolute blinder the following night in Dublin, I'd assumed they'd have risen to the occasion in typically bullish style, but they are utterly titanic here, dispatching 'Inflammable Material' in its' entirety (well, alright, minus 'Closed Groove') with the sort of pent-up fury we'd expect from men 30 years their junior. The finale, featuring a militant 'Johnny Was' and the inevitable, emotional 'Alternative Ulster' is particularly memorable.
At the time of writing, I've no idea what the future holds for SLF. They released arguably their best album with 'Guitar & Drum' in 2003 and a couple of fine new tunes they previewed on the March tour suggests there's more than a couple of great albums left in them, so one hopes 'Still Burning' isn't a full stop. For now, though, let's enjoy this DVD for what it is: a tremendous celebration of a band whose passion, commitment and way with a killer tune remains an example to us all.
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